A Microfiche Appendix conforming to the standards set forth in 35 CFR .sctn. 1 .96(c)(2) is attached to the parent appl. Ser. No. 08/609,669. The Microfiche Appendix includes four microfiche including an Appendix A microfiche, an Appendix B microfiche, an Appendix C microfiche and an Appendix D microfiche. The Appendix A microfiche includes nine frames. The Appendix B microfiche includes four frames. The Appendix C microfiche includes four frames. The Appendix D microfiche includes 29 frames.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for retrieving information from an interconnected network and for accessing and delivering the retrieved information to a user, and, more particularly, a method for accessing and retrieving information from an interconnected networks such as the internet via a telephone in response to the user""s request and for delivering the information via voice, fax-on-demand, e-mail, and other means to the user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Under the conventional method of accessing information on an interconnected network such as the internet, the user is required to have a certain amount of computer software and hardware and is expected to have a certain level of computer expertise before the user can successfully access (or browse) a wide range of information now available on the internet. If the user does not have the necessary hardware and the appropriate software to direct the computer to establish a connection to the internet via a modem or a direct connection to the internet, the user would then have no other means available to him or her for accessing the internet.
Given the amount of information now readily available on the internet, having the ability to access the internet becomes a matter of convenience as well as a matter of having access to an invaluable information source.
Additionally, from a company or an organization point of view, it is advantageous to direct customers to a centralized information database and thereby necessitating the maintenance of only one database rather than multiple databases.
The software and hardware requirement for accessing the internet creates a barrier for most people to take advantages of this information source. Prior art systems overcome this problem by providing a telephone fax-on-demand system where a user uses a telephone to dial into a company""s web page and directs the system to fax the web page back to the user. However, the manner in operating this type of system is tedious and time consuming. In order for the user to access a hyperlink on the web page, the first web page needs to be faxed back to the user with the hyperlinks numerically annotated for reference. The user then calls a second time (or waits for the first fax page to arrive on another line) to access subsequent web pages numerically using the now numbered hyperlinks.
It is thus clear that a better system is needed to access and browse the internet in an inexpensive and efficient manner.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for accessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for accessing and browsing the internet by converting the information content of a web page to voice format.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for signaling the user in an audio manner the hyperlink selections in a web page.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for accessing and browsing the internet where the information content of a web page may be provided to the user via voice format, fax-on-demand, e-mail, or regular mail.
Briefly, a method for accessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone is disclosed. The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a method that comprises receiving a first request transmitted from a telephone and transmitting a first response to the telephone, the first response comprising voice signals. The first request comprises data signals that correspond to a first unique address of a first data file residing on the computer network. The first data file comprises a first hyperlink. The voice signals of the first response correspond to text stored in the first data file. The method further comprises generating the voice signals that correspond to the text stored in the first data file. The method further comprises a generating predetermined signals preceding the first hyperlink to indicate the first hyperlink.
An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for accessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for accessing and browsing the internet by converting the information content of a web page to voice format.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for signaling the user in an audio manner the hyperlink selections in a web page.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a method for accessing and browsing the internet where the information content of a web page may be provided to the user via voice format, fax-on-demand, e-mail, or regular mail.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following illustrations and detailed description of the preferred embodiments.